Brown Trout in pit lake

[Guest]

Hello,
I've been fishing an abandonned iron ore mine pit that has been stocked with 1500 brown trout per year for the past 10 years at least. Very few people fish the lake, maybe less than 100 a year an nobody fishes it regularly except me. I know of only 3 fish that have been caught out of it, one on a worm, one on a small spoon, and one on a small rapala. I have not caught any of these fish, but I have personally talked to the people that have. All three fish were over 24" and caught right in front of the landing were the old mine access road goes down into the water. I have seen several fish while fishing the pit (all in 24" range) and mark them with my depth finder regularly. Now, these pit lakes are kind of unique. This lake is 14 acres, 172 feet deep and the banks go straight to the bottom at a 45 degree angle. Also, there is no oxygen below about 40'. The regulations for this lake state that it cannot be fished before 7:00am or after 10:00 pm. There are pehaps a dozen pit lakes in my area that are stocked with other species of trout (rainbow, brookies) and I can catch all of them I want, but the things that work for these other lakes don't seem to work here.I am obsessed with catching these fish, but I don't know how. Please help me!

[Benny]

Ringy, where you from?GR,Bovey,Taconite,Arbo,Trout Lake,Pengilly?
I grew up fishing those old pits, mainly the ones by Pengilly like O'Brian Res. and the pit behind Ox Hide lake to name a few in that area.
There is a pit behind Snow ball lake that has smallies in it but there really is not a name for the pit.We used to party by it as high school kids.
Benny

[HOGEYE]

These stocked trout are raised on food in a pellet form. Try to mimic it. A good thing to get is berkly trout bait. It comes in a little jar and is usually orange or yellow or mixed. Turn your gain to high and you should be able to read the thermocline. Fish just above this with this bait formed into a little ball with either 3way rigs or slip bobber. With a three way and your gain turned high you can see the dropper weight below you even with an LCD. This works for me.

[Guest]

I think i know where your talking we have fished it a few times caught a few browns nice ones at that. We tried everything only way we can catch them was with lindy rig with 2 feet or so of line night crawler and we blow the crawler up so it floats.

[Guest]

Benny,
I'm from Crosby-Ironton, down here on the Cuyuna Range. They have stocked most of our pits wit trout. I too attended a few pit parties. My dad could always tell because I could never quite get the red dust off the tires!

Ringy

[JP Z]

Ringy,

You fishing up around Outing perchance for the Browns? I know the pits in C/I have a few Browns but in Outing they are much better. I'm thinking Raps or something would be a good bet considering Browns are much more of a Predator than Brookies. They like Meat.

[Renneberg]

Rindy, post this question in the Trout Forum. You should have no problem finding help in there.

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"Study to be quite"

[Guest]

This is the only pit on the cuyuna range stocked with brown trout (for the past 15 years anyway), the rest are stocked with rainbows and brookies and I believe the lakes around Outing are also only stocked with brookies and rainbows (according to the DNR stocking reports). I know the boys (and girl) at Ore's n Mine well. They know of only one person that has caught brown trout from this pit and they won't tell how they caught them. I can't really blame them! The lake is unnamed but is refered to as Section 6 mine.

[Benny]

AAhhh, I see now.I had forgoten about those pits, when My cousin lived in Riverton we used to ride the R's over to the old race track North East of town.What a fun time we used to have spending hours on end tring to see who could climb the tallest mine hill.
We tried fishing the pit right behind Crosby one year, but didn't have much luck.Tried it in the winter once also, had the C.O out there with in 10 minutes of setting up.They do watch that pit close to make sure no one leaves trash or is fishing it illegaly.
Benny

[Bobb-o]

Ringy exactly which mine pit are you fishing? I have a cabin up right outside of crosby. If you are still having trouble stop in and talk to one of the guys at Oars 'n Mine they should bve able to help you out quite a bit.

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"Score, and they will remember you for 25 years. Miss and
they will remember you forever."

[Bobb-o]

oh section six, I swim in that pit all the time during the summer. The only fish i have ever seen caught outa that lake are bass, i didnt even know there were any trout in the lake. i dont know much aboot browns but i would say your best bet would be over towards the western end where that weedbed is or along the northern side where that huge hill is

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"Score, and they will remember you for 25 years. Miss and
they will remember you forever."

[This message has been edited by Bobb-o (edited 05-30-2003).]

[Steve Foss]

Browns are far more active at night, and there are way more mature browns caught after dark than during the day.

Too bad about the time regs, but I suspect they were put in place specifically because of the nocturnal habits of browns, so the small pit doesn't get fished down.

But you should definitely post this on the trout board, because I'm sure some of those trout assassins know how to tempt daytime browns.

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"Worry less, fish more."
Steve Foss
[email protected]